Our View: How and why we endorse, and our choices

As we wrap up another election cycle, allow us to make some observations, and to clarify a few misunderstandings, too.

First, our endorsements in contested races are preferences, not predictions. Sometimes your candidate wins, sometimes your candidate loses, but that’s not necessarily a reflection on the endorsement itself. This opinion page never endorsed Rod Blagojevich for Illinois governor, not in any Democratic primary, not in any general election — four cracks at him, in all. That Illinois voters on the whole disagreed with us in every instance did not make those endorsements wrong. In retrospect, our misgivings about Mr. Blagojevich proved quite correct.

That doesn’t mean the Journal Star or any other news operation run by human beings is infallible. No one can predict the future. Sometimes we’re pleasantly surprised, sometimes sadly disappointed. Absolutely, voters should do their own independent research and come to their own conclusions. Any newspaper is just one voice, one opinion, among many in any community.

Every attempt is made — acknowledging the constraints of resources and time — to ensure that ours is an informed voice. It’s inevitable that some people are going to disagree with certain selections — see the District 150 School Board race. You know going in that you may make as many enemies as friends in the process. Nature of the beast in the opinion page business. For that reason, some newspapers take a pass, especially in primary elections. That said, one accusation that is not warranted is that such decisions are made in a vacuum, by some flip of the coin.

At least at the Journal Star, no conclusions are reached from a single perspective — from one bar poll in the endorsement of a judge, or solely from the answers on a questionnaire, or based on a solitary performance at a public forum. In fact we meet face to face with the majority of candidates on the ballot in fairly intensive interviews, which can be quite revealing. Not everyone responds to the invitation or makes an appointment — see Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner — which is revealing in itself. The serious ones — or at least those who aren’t fearful of letting voters know too much about them — usually do.

Beyond that we read as much as we can about those running from a variety of sources. We also try to talk to people who know and work with the candidates and are familiar with their history, leaders in their respective fields whose time-tested judgments we’ve grown to respect. In the end we trust our own instincts, believe our own eyes and ears, which have been trained over decades of experience with government at many levels.

Sometimes there’s more than one good choice — see the Woodford County sheriff’s race — sometimes no decent option at all. In any event, you select from what’s on the shelf. Sometimes there’s disagreement, sometimes it’s a close call, but ultimately we — Opinion Editor Mike Bailey, Executive Editor Dennis Anderson, Publisher Ken Mauser — reach a consensus, and we choose, as voters must, for better or worse.

Page 2 of 2 - It has become fashionable to knock newspapers, but allow us this defense: No other institution in this country, and certainly no other in Peoria, goes to that much effort in service of this democracy. That’s our job, but we also recognize it as a responsibility, and take it seriously. There’s much at stake for many people. Agree or disagree, we trust most of us want the best government we can get.

We also have come to appreciate that it takes a lot of guts to run for public office, to expose yourself to the whims and will of the people. For the most part we salute those who do and, our choice or not, wish them luck today.

One more thing: We have noted a number of times in the last couple of months how this is the primary that no one seems to be noticing. Analysts for the most part are predicting a low turnout, which can produce a very skewed result that, as we have learned over the years, can prove all too regrettable. You’re lucky to live in the greatest — if imperfect, as all are — nation on Earth. You’re given the opportunity to speak and vote your mind. No one should take that for granted. Vote. You owe it to yourself, you owe it to your country.